With 420 Votes, Japan Hemp Party Candidate is Smoked Out

A crusader for legalized marijuana in Japan lost his bid for election in Fujisawa City — but he did it in the most poetic way possible.

By Nyri Bakkalian

The local elections have just concluded in Japan and on the local level, a wide range of parties and candidates ran and won. Friend of Unseen Japan Dr. Jeffrey Hall tweeted on this issue that bowled us over. Read on to get the dope on the Hemp Party’s loss in the Fujisawa City Council election, by a strangely poetic margin.

Campaigning Despite Long Odds

Despite severe criminalization of cannabis in Japan at the national level as a drug, there is a small but energetic movement advocating for its legalization. However, CBD, legalized since 2013, is a growing business.

The Hemp Party — in full, the Hemp and Yamamoto Tarō’s Party, led by the eponymous Yamamoto Tarō — advocates for legalization of cannabis use as a drug. The party put forth two candidates in the spring 2023 election– pro gaming coach Kizoku, the candidate in Fujisawa City, and Kamakura Tsuyoshi, owner of Okayama-based CBD dispensary SWAGLAB, who ran for a city council seat in Okayama City.